About the Rongxiang Xu Center
Our Mission
About Us:
We hope to revolutionize wound-healing therapeutics through groundbreaking research to provide personalized care for patients at BIDMC.
For inquiries about joining our team, please visit the "Contact" page for more information.
The mission of the Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics is to train physicians worldwide in the management of severe health problems, such as acute and chronic wounds, diabetes-related lower extremity problems, and burns, and to collaborate with multidisciplinary scientists towards the development of innovative new treatments for these conditions.
The Xu Center encourages collaborations with other nonprofit organizations worldwide that share our mission. These collaborations include the development of courses designed to train physicians and scientists from around the world, with a particular emphasis on developing counties.
In addition, the Xu Center will participate in and support local education activities, including meetings that focus on regenerative medicine and wound healing.
The Xu Center will support the Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center both today and for generations to come by providing the resources to accomplish present priorities and fund future innovations in wound care, reconstructive surgery, research, and education. It will provide critical resources to further advance the treatment of patients throughout the world with burns, wounds, lower extremity problems, and other disorders that represent a failure of tissue repair and regeneration.
The Xu Center support will compliment research funds that are available to BIDMC through other mechanisms, including NIH, NSF, non-profit organizations, and philanthropy.
Our Team
Leadership & The Forefront of Our Research
Research Group
- Aristidis Veves, MD, MSc, DSc, Director, Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics
- Georgios Theocharidis, MEng, MSc, PhD
- Mauricio Contreras, MD
- Zhuqing Li, PhD
- Hyangsu Nam, PhD
- Jessica Gilman, BS
- Maria Bozika, BSc, Medical Student Intern
Previous Advisees and Trainees
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Ana Tellechea, BS, PhD - Gel4Med, Inc.
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Antonella Caselli, MD - Servier employee, Italy.
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Antonios Kafanas, MD - Chief of Pathology, General District Hospital, Serres, Greece.
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Biaoliang Wu, MD, PhD - Professor at Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, No.18 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Youjiang District, Baise City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
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Bin Shu, MD - Associate Professor at the Burns Department in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
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Brandon Sumpio MD - Vascular Surgery Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Christos Sampanis, MD - Chief of Diabetes Center, Hippocration Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece.
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Cuiping Zhang, PhD - Key Laboratory of Wound Repair and Tissue Regeneration The First Affiliated Hospital, PLA General Hospital. Peking, China.
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Daniel Roh, MD, PhD - Laszlo N. Tauber Assistant Professor of Surgery, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.
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Dimitrios Baltzis, MD, PhD - Private practice, Saudi Arabia.
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Eleftheria Valsami, PhD - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard University
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Ermelindo Leal, PhD - Coimbra University, Portugal.
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Eugenia Carvalho, PhD - Principal Investigator in Diabetes and Obesity at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
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Evaggelia Meimeti, BS - Athens, Greece.
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Francesco Tecilazich, MD - Narrow River Management
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Guangyu Chu, MD - Visiting Research Fellow, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China
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Hau Pham, DPM - Assistant Professor of Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine.
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Ioanna Eleftheriadou, MD - Athens Medical School, Greece.
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Jianfang Fu, MD - Department of Endocrinology, Xijing Hospital, Xi’an, China.
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Jie Dong, MD - Visiting Research Scholar; Attending physician and PhD candidate at her institution, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Beijing, China.
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Jordan Loader, BS - Australian Catholic University’s Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research.
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Konstantinos Kounas, MD - Clinical practice, Greece.
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Lalita Khaodhiar, MD - Associate Professor of Medicine, UC San Diego, CA.
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Lihong Chen, MD - Attending physician and PhD candidate at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China.
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Maria Bozika, BSc. - Medical Student at School of Medicine, University of Patras
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Matheus Gennari-Felipe, BSPharm, MSc. - PhD candidate at Cruzeiro do Sul Universidad, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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Matthieu Roustit, MD - Professor at the Université Joseph Fourier and Grenoble University Hospital, France.
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Ming Guan, MD, PhD - Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China
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Panayiotis Economides, MD - Practicing Physician, Cyprus.
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Peng Wang, MD - Attending physician at First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
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Quinn, Kyle PhD - Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Arkansas.
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Seema Dangwal, PhD - Instructor at Cardiovascular Institute, Department of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA.
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Su Chi Lim, MD - Consultant Physician, Singapore.
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Wanni Zhao, MD - Department of Pathophysiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, China.
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Weijie Zhang, MD, PhD - Professor at the Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou city, Gansu province, China.
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Xiaoli Li, MD, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
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Ying Zhang, MD - Visiting Research Scholar; Attending physician and PhD candidate at her institution, The Third Peoples Hospital of Shen Zhen (Second affiliated hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
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Yongjun Zheng, MD - Burns and Trauma in Shanghai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University (SMMU), Shanghai, China.
Approach
Our Research Approach
At the Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics, we are involved in "bench to bedside" research to discover novel, interventional therapeutics with the goal of promoting and enhancing wound-healing processes.
Methodology
Our methodology arises from our three primary research areas: basic science, bench to bedside, and clinical. We devise our projects to be highly efficient and impactful. Our utmost goal is to carry out the desired mission of the Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics.
Lab Protocol
We have various SOPs for our lab protocols and adhere closely to the safety regulations enforced by BIDMC's Environmental Health & Safety department.
Policy
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's policy is as follows:
"Protecting our patients, their families, and the many visitors who come to BIDMC every day is our top priority. A hospital is a place of healing, a place where every staff, patient or visitor should feel safe and secure."
Our research adheres closely to BIDMC's policy. Patient safety and utmost care are our top priorities.
Education
At the Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics, we view education as the necessary first step in revolutionizing all aspects of medical care and practice. We conduct research to encourage discourse and collaboration in the academic world, promote awareness, and pose solutions to relevant medical problems, specifically those associated with the complications of diabetic wounds.
Selected Research Support
Selected Research Support
1R44DK141401-01A1 Tepper, Mark (Contact PI), Veves, Aristidis (Site PI) Mooney, David (2025-2027)
Applicant Organization: EPOULOSIS THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Metrifonate local application for DFU treatment
Metrifonate, a cholinesterase inhibitor, could be a suitable repurposed drug for DFU management. Based on our findings, we hypothesize that topical metrifonate treatment improves healing by modulation of acetylcholine availability and activation of pathways that are similar to those associated with DFU healing. It can hence be used to develop novel treatments for DFUs.
1R01DK136699-01A1 Veves (Contact PI), Mooney (2024-2028)
Use of Modified mRNA for the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulceration
The main goal of the application is to test the efficacy of new biomaterials that release mRNA corresponding to genes shown to promote DFU healing, in improving wound repair in genetically diabetic mice, diabetic swine, transplanted human skin onto immunocompromised diabetic mice and ex vivo human skin.
TRAUMAS: Treatment and recovery augmented with electrical and ultrasound-mediated actuation and sensing (02/21/2020-02/20/2024)
Sia, Shepard, Veves (co-PI)
1 R61 AR078093-01 (09/01/2020-08/31/2022)
Botchkarev (Contact), Gorbunova, Sharov, Veves (Co-PI)
The skin of naked mole rats as a model for scar-free wound healing
1R01EB031032-01 (08/05/2021-04/30/2025)
Quinn (Site PI)
Non-invasive automated wound analysis via deep learning neural networks
DoD-PR200524 (07/01/2021-06/30/2025)
Zhao, Veves (co-PI)
Bioadhesive Patch for Accelerated Healing of Diabetic Ulcer
1 R61 DK131915-01 (04/25/2022-03/31/2024)
Veves (co-PI, contact Pi), Niewczas
Proteomic Biomarkers Prognostic for Diabetic Wound Healing
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Translational Research Hubs Spark Grant (07/01/2022-06/30/2024)
Veves, (co-PI), Theocharidis, Vlachos
Spatial proteogenomics and genetic engineering of fibroblasts for enhanced diabetic wound healing
Moderna Fellowship 2022 (07/01/2022-06/30/2025)
Li (Fellow), Veves (supervisor)
Controlled mRNA-LNPs delivery bandage for diabetic foot ulcer
Location 1
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
East Campus, Dana Building, 811
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA
United States
02215
Location 2
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
West Campus, Palmer Building, 3rd Floor
185 Pilgrim Road
Boston, MA
United States
02215